Inside a Windmill

View going into Leiden

Kitchen

Windmill Museum

In Leiden we decided to visit the windmill museum, in spite of the fact I have visited Holland 3 times I had never seen one nevermind visited one. Windmills are a big part of Dutch heritage and there are some 1,200 windmills left in Holland. Now some organisations are trying to make perserve them, we saw quite a few dotted around in the countryside. Alessio enjoyed playing spot the windmill while in the train to Leiden.

The windmill had 7 floors and we were able to climb up to the 6th which disappointed Alessio as he wanted to get right to the top. The ground floor was the living area as you can see from the photos. I found the kitchen particularly cosy looking and could imagine feeling warmly welcomed into the room.

Some of the floors showed the different tools and equipment used in the mill, and some had miniature mills to look at. The ladders got taller and narrower as the higher we got and coming down you had to go backwards.

There are varying types of mills this one was a round stage mill, it has to be high as it must be able to catch enough wind about the surrounding buildings. The windmill`s function was to grind grain into flour, also seeds, wood, paper and other products.

I have recently read there is place called Kinderdijk which has 19 drainage windmills all in a small area,  it is on UNESCO World Heritage List, that would have been interesting to visit.

Visit a windmill and keep up this part of Dutch culture!